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October 2009
Op-Ed
Nature
As part of a larger publication, assessing the effectiveness of the economic stimulus, Michael Levi and Adam Segal write that the Department of Energy is pursuing a "prudent and sound" strategy for investing their share. The more pressing concern, according to Levi and Segal, is that Congress may forgo funding the department in favor of more "politically attractive" options.
See more in Financial Crises, Energy, Congress
November 10, 2009
Op-Ed
Bloomberg.com
World War II was the era of John Maynard Keynes and the 1990s were the era of Milton Friedman. But Amity Shlaes says that because of the effort to pass the health-care bill, the next few years belong to Hayek.
See more in Geoeconomics
November 4, 2009
Op-Ed
Nikkei Financial Daily
Roger Kubarych says that a recovery based solely on improved productivity won't gain much traction unless workers share in the gains.
See more in Financial Crises, International Finance
November 3, 2009
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
Amity Shlaes says that the Israeli military has played a surprising role in Israel's record of innovation.
See more in Economics
October 27, 2009
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
Amity Shlaes discusses the factors that contribute to alumni donations.
See more in Economics
October 20, 2009
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
Amity Shlaes argues that senior entitlements preclude U.S. fiscal reform, starting with Social Security.
See more in Economics
October 19, 2009
Op-Ed
Financial News
In Benn Steil's October column in Dow Jones' Financial News, he shows that the U.S. only calls for floating exchange rates when it believes the dollar will float down rather than up, and argues that this self-interested inconsistency is encouraging China and America's other major creditors to move away from non-discriminatory multilateral trade as they seek to lessen their dependence on the dollar.
See more in Financial Crises, Trade
October 13, 2009
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
Both parties seem to agree that the way to get Americans back to work is to create the right incentives. But Amity Shlaes argues that there may be too much "nudging" going on. Perhaps having too many "choice architects" is making the recovery unsatisfying.
See more in Geoeconomics, Labor
October 13, 2009
Op-Ed
Forbes Online
This year's Nobelists demonstrate the United States' success in science. But Edward Alden argues that we are jeopardizing this success through shortsighted immigration restrictions that make it difficult for the most talented and ambitious scientists to come here and remain.
See more in United States, Geoeconomics, Immigration
October 6, 2009
Op-Ed
Financial Times
Matthew Slaughter writes that as the crisis and recession recede, U.S. policymakers must refocus on persistent structural problems, particularly income inequality.
See more in Geoeconomics, Trade
September 29, 2009
Op-Ed
Amity Shlaes says that Barney Frank's ideas to make the mortgage market "safe" will yield more primitive and fewer mortgages which won't entirely capture buyer potential.
See more in International Finance
September 21, 2009
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
Amity Shlaes writes that "to recall Kristol isn't to recall decline, but rather to remind that neoconservatism, or something like it, actually has a vibrant future."
September 15, 2009
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
Amity Shlaes warns that without the right incentives, market players will continue to game the system in the very fashion that President Obama deplored in his speech on reforming financial regulation.
See more in United States, International Finance
August 25, 2009
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
Amity Shlaes comments on efforts to reduce the pay gap between men and women.
See more in United States, Economics
August 24, 2009
Op-Ed
Financial News
In the first of his new monthly columns for Financial News, Benn Steil argues that private as well as public sector defined benefit pension schemes are a major risk to taxpayers, and should be replaced by defined contribution schemes.
See more in Business & Foreign Policy, International Finance
August 13, 2009
Op-Ed
Washington Post
Amity Shlaes examines the Corporate and Financial Institution Compensation Fairness Act.
See more in United States, Economics
August 12, 2009
Op-Ed
The Boston Globe
Michael A. Levi argues that the inclusion of carbon tariffs in cap-and-trade legislation would be economically damaging.
See more in Energy/Environment, U.S. Strategy and Politics
August 11, 2009
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
Amity Shlaes argues that both Democrats and Republicans are guilty of hypocrisy when discussing end-of-life care in the health care debate.
See more in United States, Economics, Health, Science, and Technology, Global Health
July 28, 2009
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
Amity Shlaes argues that the Federal Reserve is a "monarchy" with power to intervene in the world economy.
See more in United States, Economics, Financial Crises
July 13, 2009
Op-Ed
Los Angeles Times
See more in Americas, Immigration
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In Money, Markets, and Sovereignty, the authors present a fascinating intellectual history of monetary nationalism from the ancient world to the present and explore why, in its modern incarnation, it represents the single greatest threat to globalization.
In The Closing of the American Border, Edward Alden goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the Bush administration’s struggle to balance security and openness in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
In Regional Monetary Integration, Peter B. Kenen poses an important question: Should various country groups follow the lead of the European Monetary Union and form similar full-fledged monetary unions?
In contrast to conventional wisdom, the growth in government spending and heightened regulation during the Great Depression may have done much to slow economic recovery.
In this report, Benn Steil shows that the financial crisis is the inevitable bust of a classic credit boom, and explains how monetary, taxation, and home ownership promotion policy combined with other feaures of the financial system to fuel an unsustainable buildup in debt. He recommends significant reforms to reverse the debt financing bias and make the system more resilient to falls in asset prices.
In order for policymakers to tackle today’s global economic crisis, this report argues, they must go beyond bailouts and stimulus packages and focus on one of the crisis's root causes: imbalances between savings and investment in major countries.
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.